Entering the lime-light: Chiangmai Bioveggie eyes wider ASEAN and Middle East with frozen juice
Thailand’s Chiangmai Bioveggie is focusing on exports for its single-ingredients frozen lime juice product, banking on the culinary heritage of limes in many Asian and Middle East markets, coupled with shelf-life benefits, for success.
This is an extension from the company’s vegetable tablet products designed to provide nutrients from fruits and vegetables in a convenient and palatable format.
Within South East Asia, the company is focusing on markets such as Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Banana and blue pea flower: Thai researchers develop formula for reducing risk of urinary stone formation
A group of Thai researchers has developed product that reduces the risk of urinary stone formation in animal models and are currently conducting phase I and II clinical trials to validate its benefits in humans.
Known as HydroZitLa, the product, contains banana stem extract, citrate from food grade citric acid that is commercially available, and blue pea flower as the active ingredients.
The products are currently sold in vending machines in the campus of Chulalongkorn University. They are also available via Facebook and messaging app LINE.
‘Double approach’: Skin care brands launching oral supplements for anti-hyperpigmentation as awareness grows
There is a trend of skin care firms launching supplements that claim to reduce skin hyperpigmentation, giving consumers an additional option to traditional topical creams.
This is according to Horphag Research, the Geneva-based company behind skin health ingredient French maritime pine bark extract, trademarked as Pycnogenol.
“What we see from our customers is that they are looking for a double approach…For example, they could have a lotion, a cream for topical application and at the same time, they also sell capsules with Pycnogenol inside. They make sure that they approach skin care from a holistic standpoint,” said Sébastien Bornet, VP, global sales and marketing at Horphag Research.
Fish oil supplementation improves information processing in kids – 12 week-RCT
The supplementation of fish oil has been shown to improve the ability to process information in children, according to a 12-week RCT conducted in Thailand.
The trial, conducted by researchers from Mae Fah Luang University, Dhurakij Pundit University, Swinburne University, and Maha Chulalongkorn Rajavidyalaya University, studied a commercially available fish oil supplement made by Australia headquartered bioscience firm Max Biocare.
Findings showed that fish oil supplementation could lead to consistent improvement in attention and cognitive processing ability, as seen from changes in brain activity when the children were taking tests for memory, attention, and inhibition.
Innovation opportunity: Newly crowned NutraChampion sees huge scope to cater to Thailand’s ageing population
Like several Asian countries, Thailand is experiencing a greying population. While interest in healthy ageing is high, the level of innovation for this category of products remains relatively low.
As such, there are huge opportunities for more industry research and product innovation targeted at Thailand ageing population, says Dr Anadi Nitithamyong, assistant professor at Thailand’s Mahidol University.
Dr Nitithamyong is also our newly crown NutraChampion, who was awarded the title in this year’s NutraIngredients-Asia Awards.
